I hope everyone had a really great Thanksgiving.  Rich and I met some very good friends for a late lunch and had a lovely day.  Of course I hurried home to do some online shopping.  I never knew that the stamp sites would have so many Black Friday specials!  I’m definitely going to have to do a haul after the shopping I’ve been doing.  I started by watching Jennifer McGuire’s crafting things video on stamps and then went to her video on inks and finished with her video on tools.  I have to say, she makes me want to many things, it’s really ridiculous.  I definitely shouldn’t have watched those videos!

My first stop after watching, was to go to Simon Says Stamp, where I bought several of the stamp sets she mentioned.  Then I went to My Favorite Things and bought some stamps and finished my day with Joanns.  I’m trying not to freak out by the sheer volume of things I purchased, but that’s just not my style.  I’m going to lose my mind when the stamp sets start rolling in.  Did I need them?  No, but I REALLY wanted them and one of my friends convinced me that I also need to have them.  She said I should consider them a late birthday gift to myself.   I can easily talk myself into this kind of logic, can’t most of us?  Now I need to go find more cd cases as I’ve used all of the ones I have and still have more sets that need to be placed in cases.  I guess I’ll worry about that another day.

Of course I also went shopping at my local Joanns where I found some Fiskars punches I wanted and more Halloween things on huge clearance.  I promise that’s all the shopping I’m doing for at least a couple of days.

I jumped back into crafting today.  Rich hasn’t given me the go ahead to start making videos, but I can’t sit around any longer without accumulating more videos for Rich to fret about.  Our great niece’s birthday is today and I wanted to finish the video I made for her card as well as a card I made for a good friend of ours.  I decided to make both cards similar in look, but with different folds.  I think both came out very unique and I’m pretty sure both girls will like them.

I’m trying really hard not to go to Joann’s for their big black Friday sale as it started today.  I made it until 4PM and then cracked and decided I needed to check it out.  Luckily, when I got to the garage, I could hear the rain falling on the driveway and knew it was ice.  With that in mind, I decided Joanns needed to wait, darn it.

Friday is another day, although I’m not a black Friday shopper, preferring to shop from home rather than fight the crowds.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for all of the people who read my blog and subscribe or view my channel.  It means so much to me to know that there are people who appreciate the content I provide.  I hope all of you have a very happy Thanksgiving and will post another video on Friday.

I wanted to make some videos for kids to do while they are off on Thanksgiving break and this is an easy one.

You’ll need one or more pinecones, a jar of cheap smooth peanut butter and bird seed.  I found my bird seed in the bulk section of my grocery store and only bought a pound of it.  I made two pinecones and the project used the entire jar of peanut butter and most of the bird seed.

On one pinecone I used floral wire and wrapped it inside the pinecone and twisted the wire so no edges were exposed.  On the other, I used a jute or twine and tied it in a knot.  I used a spatula to fill the peanut butter into the pinecone then put handfuls of bird seed on it and pressed them into it.  Rich thinks it would work better to microwave the peanut butter and pour it onto the pinecone, but I was afraid it wouldn’t stick.  You can try it if you think it will work for you.

Our birds are loving these and sit on it almost all day long.

Today is my birthday and I had a terrific day.  Friends invited Rich and I out to lunch and then my close friend came by with a cake for me for dinner.  It was one of the best birthday’s I’ve ever had.

I’m taking a break from making any videos today and tomorrow so that Rich can catch his breath.  He’s so far behind and I’m feeling a little guilty because I haven’t even opened the boxes I keep my Christmas stash of craftiness inside.  Just think of all the ideas that will come to me for Christmas once that happens.  I don’t even want to think about it.  I’ll definitely be putting Rich into a state of shock if I add another five to ten videos to his ever-growing stack.

I am going to make another peg stamp video as well as buy a bunch more on the 29th when they are selling everything in the store for 25% off.  You know I can’t resist a sale like that!  I already have a list ready for Friday of probably twenty more stamps that I really need to narrow down to the ones I truly have to have.  But then again, what’s the point?  I should get the stamps I love and be done with it.  I mean after all,, who can resist a sale so great?

 

 

I wanted to help with ideas on how to save money and here are my ideas.

Blackfriday.com is a website that allows you to view the black Friday ads weeks before they are available in paper.  It also gives you the start date for the sales and some of the stores have already started their sales, including Kohls and Amazon.  Blackfriday.com  is a terrific tool to help you locate the things you want to buy at your pace, not frantically searching the night before the sales start.

Retailmenot.com  is a website that shows you the coupon codes available for online stores.

Ebates is your first stop to shopping online.  It pays you to shop at stores online and now some actual retail stores.  If you go there first then input the store name where you are shopping online, and click on that site, you will automatically receive monies back for your purchases.

Splitcoaststampers.com is a website that has a lot of great tutorials, ideas, galleries, and you can find great deals on crafting products.  Once you find the buy/sell listings, I’d save it as a favorite on your computer so it’s easy to get to.

Credit cards can save you money in a couple of ways:
1.  If you pay interest and your rate it high, you can contact the credit card company and ask for a better product at a lower rate.  In order to get a lower rate, you must pay on time every month.

2.  If you pay your credit cards off monthly, use a cash back credit card and research them by googling “best cash back credit cards” and find the one that works best for you.

3.  If you don’t use credit and have a debit card that is connected to your checking account, your bank may have a rewards program linked to it.  If you aren’t sure, call your bank and inquire about it.

Walmart Savings Catcher–price matches local ads just by putting your receipt information into it on the walmart.com site.  They will pay you an e gift card for any prices that are lower elsewhere in your area.

Loyalty Cards-make sure you have them for the stores you frequent so they can tailor offers to your buying habits as well as sending you offers via the mail and email.

I hope my ideas are of some help to you and that you find ways to save money from them.  Please let me know if you have any other ideas that I forgot to cover or didn’t know about.

I shouldn’t have watched Jennifer McGuire’s favorite things for 2016.  Specifically stamps.  Why oh why does she have to put that video up just when I made myself stop buying any crafty things.  Ok, not many crafty things, minimal crafty things.  Geez, I’m a crafty shop-a-holic and can’t help myself.

Every once in a while, I find myself thinking that I have every crafty thing I could possibly want and then something happens and I snap and buy anything and everything in sight.  Maybe not everything, but close.  That’s what happened when I saw her video.  I saw so many stamps I didn’t have and wanted and lost my mind.

The other problem I have is when I have a crafty friend who sends me emails about things they’ve bought and I stupidly go to the site they found their treasure on and can’t control myself.  I am an addict.  There’s nothing to stop me.  I would love to blame my shopping on someone else, but it’s all me.

Something great did happen to me.  I got my first handmade birthday card from my first cousin’s daughter.  (My birthday is tomorrow.)  Does that make her my first cousin once removed?  I never know how that works out.  Anyway, she’s been watching my videos and decided to attempt her first card and send it to me.  It was terrific and I am thrilled to connect with a family member, especially over crafting.  I have a very small family and I’m not sure if any of them do anything crafty except Shelli.  I’ll have to show her card on one of my videos.  It was so creative.  She said I made it look a lot easier than it really is.  Frankly, I say that about every other crafter, and never think anything is as easy as they make things look.  Shelli and I are planning to spend an afternoon together before the holidays and I’m hoping it will include some crafting shopping.  It would be so much fun to shop with a new crafty friend!  I can’t wait.

 

It started to snow today and we were supposed to get “lake effect snow” which happens when you live near one of the Great Lakes.  The temperature on the area near the lake will keep the snow away from the lakeshore and dump tons of it inland.  Once the lake freezes, then the lakeshore gets more snow.  We’ve had really warm weather so I’m doubting the lake will freeze over this year, so the lake effect will be throwing snow on us every time it snows.

They were predicting a total of about 15″ for us over the last three days and fortunately, we’ve only gotten maybe three inches.  As I’ve gotten older, snow is less and less appealing to me and I’m thrilled when we have little or no snow.  I’m crossing my fingers that this will be a light year for snow.

There is an advantage to a large snow forecast.  We make sure we have all of the essentials, and then I make all kinds of great snow foods, like roast beef and meatloaf and this year I even made a small turkey.  It’s fun to drink hot chocolate and know we don’t have anywhere we need to be.

Last night, a black bear made a visit to my bird feeders and destroyed two of my bigger ones and bent the shepherd’s hooks almost to the ground.  I’ve only seen the bear once, at night, directly behind my house.  I had windows between me and the bear, but honestly, he (or she) was still really scary.  I always worry about letting the dogs outside after a bear sighting, because I never know where he or she is.

Since I am down two bird feeders, I decided to make some out of pinecones, peanut butter and bird seed.  I made a video showing how to do it and although it’s messy, it’s not really difficult to do.  As we speak, I’m watching the small birds sitting on one of the pinecones and having a little breakfast.  I was amazed at how much peanut butter one pinecone could consume, although to be honest, it was a really big pinecone, maybe six inches long.  The best part of this craft is watching the birds have fun with it..

I made a haul at Dollar Tree that consisted of things I intended to make as gifts. This is the first gift video.
I found really great Mandalas and a note pad for the Mandalas, all for $1 each. I had the Christmas paper, tag and ribbon I am using in my stash, but counted the cost of it in my total cost.

I used the Gingerbread Christmas set from Stampin’ Up for the tag with Real Red and Crumb Cake dye inks. The stamp set is currently available in the 2016 Stampin’ Up Holiday catalog. I also had the gel pens that I’ve included with the gift.

I took 12″ thicker designer paper and scored it at 1/4″ on three sides and did the same to a second matching sheet. I used a bone folder to really make the folds clean. I attached tear tape to the 1/4″ folds and cut the corners out where the two score lines meet at the bottom of the bag. After adhering the two pieces of paper together with tear tape and Art Glitter Glue, I took a 1/4″ punch and punched a circle out of the top of the bag and ran the ribbon with the tag on it through the hole and tied the ribbon in a knot at the top.

I hope you enjoy this gift and it’s packaging.

I went to the Dollar Tree and found some great ideas for gifts for the holidays. I bought Mandala coloring books and a weekly planner and washi tape. I plan on making a separate video using the basic planner and turning it into a “command center” for the recipient of the gift. I’m hoping you’ll buy a planner and washi tapes so you can make a planner gift with me.

I’ve been crazy making videos and was using my laptop in my craft room for a video I’m doing on ways to save money on everything from crafts to credit cards.  I spent my career in banking and helping people save money was high on my list of priorities.  I’ve seen other people make money saving videos, but they miss some key components to savings and I wanted to fill in the gaps.  So I was using Rich’s laptop for the last three days and wasn’t able to access this site as a blogger, only as a viewer.  I apologize for the delay in follow up, I don’t normally go more than two days without a post.

I started making some ornaments that I’ve been wanting to make for a while.  I had an idea about making a wreath out of small punched flowers (out of white card stock).  The idea was to have color just in the centers of the flowers.  I started the wreath, only to discover that I would need thousands (and I mean thousands) of the flowers to make the wreath, and gave up.  That was last year.  This year I downscaled my plan to an ornament and the results were really great.  It is a really easy project, but does take a little bit of time in punching the flowers and pinning them.  It took about a hundred flowers to make the ornament look good.  I’m pleased with the results and hope you’ll like it as well.